Skip The Shark, Please!
by Leuny
Summary: Fish are evil. Sharks, even more so. A strange life-saving encounter and a throat lozenge offered at exactly the right moment. Funny coincidence, that. This has been written in answer to a Daily Word Prompt Challenge on Poirot Café's forum. Drabble ahead!


_To Jump The Shark_

**Disclaimer**: Magic Kaito does not belong to me. I'm just playing around~…

**AN**: This was written in response to a Daily Word Prompt Challenge on the Poirot Café Proboards forum. You'll find out more about this at the end of the story. First, I invite you to read it and enjoy!

„Haaa-pshew!" Today was not his lucky day. His nose ran, his throat was dry and sore to the point that he thought talking would only damage his vocal chords, his head hurt as though a hammer had been thrown at it and to top it all off, he had to attend school. Honestly, today was just not his day. The witch was giving him the evil eye, he had to tolerate the blond nuisance's inquiring gazes and act normal for his childhood friend's peace of mind. Yeah, a usual day in the life of one Kaito Kuroba.

He sighed, deeply. Really, why had he had to come to school again? Ah, yes. To prove to Hakuba that he was not the Kaitô Kid. All considered, he supposed that his cold seemed to tip the sleuth off that his suspicions were correct a tad more than if he'd stayed at home… whatever. The brunette couldn't bring himself to care much about that any more, as calculations and mathematic formulas clamored for his attention. It would be alright, at least for the time being. At least there was no shark in this classroom… as there had been yesterday, in that huge ballroom close to Tôkyô's Government Building.

_ToJumpTheShark_

Some rich guy had ordered for that shark to be temporarily transferred there, along with a second tank filled with a particularly colorful species of exotic fish.

It was a given fact that the selfsame man then simply had to organize a ball there, with all the famous faces that the Japanese society currently played host to. Naturally, everybody came in their best clothes, decked out in jewelries in all forms and colors. Of course, all the glitter and excitement also attracted and held the attention of a certain jewel thief, well-known for his gentlemanly behavior and the white suit.

Originally, it had been an emerald, encased delicately by a golden necklace, which had pulled him there. The ball was an added bonus that he could – and did – build into his plans. Was it his fault that the police had made a few mistakes and let him enter the building? No, surely it was not. The outcome of that night hadn't been in their favor, to say the least. Had it not been for that shark, he'd have gotten out of the building much sooner and his exit would have been just that much smoother…

As it was, he made a mistake, too, when his concentration slipped because of that monster in that tank… He fell right into the second tank and panicked. Fortunately, Jii was there. The old manservant had the presence of mind to react in time and switch all the lights off. A second later, and he'd have been a mightily panicked white bundle of shock staring into the faces of a few hundred people.

There were those… f-f-… those f-… their eyes were staring at him! Directly at him! Those soulless eyes… the stuff of nightmares, they were! Oh, he knew already just how many nights to come they would keep him awake… a moment or two, he floated underwater. Time stood still, his breath had stopped as soon as he'd realized just what was swimming right there, around him, and then…

And then…

Someone had pulled him out, he could remember that much. He'd been saved, and then pulled somewhere, out of sight. And then Jii had come by and there'd been a sharp exchange of words… the old man had changed his voice a bit, his memory supplied helpfully. Next… he'd been dragged off by Jii. Off to safety. Oh, for the life of him he couldn't remember who it had been who'd saved him and let him go. An unknown ally in the face of his most terrible nightmares. An unknown element in the Chase between him and the police, one that was on his side and saw to it that he wasn't hurt. He'd been pulled out of the water, after all. That had to count for something, right?

_ToJumpTheShark_

The bell ringing to signal break time brought him out of his thoughts. He'd been down memory lane for the last half hour, hadn't he?

"Here." What? A hand with a pill in it hovered over his desk, inches from his face to his left. Following it up to the face, a confused "Hn?" escaped him at what the British detective offered him.

"A pill for your sore throat. It's a throat lozenge and completely harmless." Right. As was the detective. On the plus side, they were still at school and he sorely doubted the blond would pull anything on him here. Suspiciously, he took it and looked at it a bit closer.

"Oh, come on, Kaito! Don't look at it as if it's poison!" his childhood friend intervened good-naturedly from his right. "Besides, I took one earlier and they were fine!" Oh? Aoko had a sore throat, too? He hadn't noticed. Mollified, he put one into his mouth and sucked at it. The pill tasted just like one would expect a throat lozenge to taste. Looking to his left once more to thank the blond sleuth, he noticed that his classmate had already ambled on towards the door.

"Oi, Hakuba!" that sufficed to make him turn around, although his throat rebelled at that use of his voice. The Hakuba offspring looked at him in askance, one eyebrow elegantly raised.

"Thanks!" That produced nothing more than a view of the blond teenager's backside once more as he made his way out of the classroom and a boredly spoken "You're welcome.", but it cheered Kaito up a lot, already. Maybe they could become friends yet. Maybe not all was lost yet, maybe some of what they could become could be salvaged still. They'd have to play the waiting game there, then, he supposed. It was with a smile that he followed Aoko, bento in hand and a tirade about the squabble between the two boys in his ears.

He'd have to ask Jii some time, about this mysterious savior of his.

**AN**: As with those other little ficlets of mine, the Daily Word Prompt Challenge was taken from Poirot Cafés Proboards forum. Nanowrimo is coming to an end and I'm using these little stories as a way to get some more inspiration and boost for We Are Golden, the fanfiction I've chosen to use as my story for nanowrimo. It's worked out well so far! The Challenge was to write about 500-1000 words including the following words:

**#5 Thursday,****October 2**

******1:**pill  
**2:** mistake  
**3:** emerald  
**4:** shark  
**5:**ballroom


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